Minolta X700 Debris

Hi all My husband has a Minolta X700 that I enjoy using as my 'travel-about-always-with-me' camera. Such a simple gem with the 50mm lens! Problem is that there is some dust trapped in it that is showing up in photos (the sky is a huge problem). I've cleaned the lens, the UV filter, the viewfinder, the mirror and the prism but the debris is still there and it is visiable in the viewfinder. So I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Any ideas?

It's in the viewfinder and showing up on the negs too? Usually you would get one or the other but not both. Dust on the lens itself rarely shows up as a discernable image. Only exception I can think of is if the camera uses a pellicle (half silvered fixed mirror) instead of a solid mirror. I don't think the x700 has that. I have had problems with Minoltas getting dust into the pentaprism, actually watched a bug walking around inside my viewfinder once, but this doesn't affect the image on the film. If it bothers you much, take it in for a CLA. It certainly won't hurt it.

It's not completely clear from your description whether the defects show up only in the viewfinder image or in the film image. Any dust in the lens would likely be so out of focus that it would not show up as such on the negative in most cases; enough dust might, however, cause a general degradation of the image. Dust on the mirror or the pentaprism would not affect the film image. It sounds as if the problem is still in the viewing system. Can the eyepiece be removed and cleaned?

Could the problem be your lab? The local Walmarts here tear the heck out of my negatives. The mirror/viewfinder cannot cause a problem for the film in most cases. Normally dust on a filter or front element of a lens won't really show up either. Is the rear element of the lens clean?

Yeah, the first thing I did was clean the lens - front and back. I haven't checked the negatives but on some of the prints, I have a couple of little, squiggly dust particals (maybe lint?) and that's also what I'm seeing in the viewfinder. I'll try and see if I clean it better. And yes, I used a lint free PEC pad to clean the mirror and prism. Of course, my husband's had this camera since he was a teenager so I would guess that a cla is in order right about now.

The negative carrier/condenser at the photo lab. I've seen some real problems go unchecked at some places.

The other is the shutter gate. There might be dust or debris clinging to this part of the camera that hangs down in front of the film. I once sold a Canon AE-1 Program and the customer came back from vacation very angry about a thin white near vertical line through every shot. I opened the camera, set it on bulb, opened the shutter, and found a very thin, almost invisible thread of black enamel paint that was the culprit, right across the lens side of the shutter gate. The problem was solved in three seconds, but it didn't improve the existing photos. The customer was even more frustrated after seeing how simple the fix was.

Perhaps look for something hanging down between the lens and mirror box, just behind the lens mount, maybe only in certain orientations. Could be some deteriorated mirror foam there that could affect both finder and image, but it might fall out of the way when you take the lens off and hold it in certain orientations. It could even be hanging from the bottom of the inside of the mirror.

Of course not all of these should show in the finder, but might be in the same area as a finder problem by coincidence.